On June 3, the highly anticipated court-martial of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was arrested in July 2010, will take place. A previous PolicyMic article delivered specific details on the over 700,000 government documents and pieces of classified military information Manning allegedly leaked. According to the article, “Manning is charged with leaking hundreds-of-thousands of classified documents to the website WikiLeaks.”

Manning is an American hero who made the decision to leak these classified documents as a service to the general public. He testified, “I believe that if the general public had access to the information, this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general.” He added, “I felt I accomplished something that would allow me to have a clear conscience.”

In a January 2013 ruling, Military Judge Colonel Denise Lind awarded Manning a 112-day reduction in any eventual sentence due to being subjected to excessively harsh treatment while in military detention. A month later, Judge Lind accepted Bradley Manning’s guilty pleas of 10 lesser charges that he misused classified information, though he denied “aiding the enemy.” A guilty sentence to “aiding the enemy” could languish him military prison for the remainder of his life.

Bradley Manning released the video, “Collateral Murder,” to WikiLeaks and he explained, “The most alarming aspect of the video to me was the seemingly delightful bloodlust they appeared to have.” He went on, “They dehumanized the individuals they were engaging and seemed to not value human life by referring to them as quote ‘dead bastards’ unquote and congratulating each other on the ability to kill in large numbers.” Continue reading →

USA Terrorism: HIROSHIMA / NAGASAKI Atomic Bomb
This video is a clip from a BBC Documentary called “BBC History of World War II: Hiroshima (2005)”. It is available on DVD
The US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the largest international terrorist attack in history. This attack was the only time that atomic or nuclear weapons have been used.

“Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation against civilians in the pursuit of political aims.In the Geneva and Hague Conventions, which in turn are based upon the basic principle that the deliberate harming ofsoldiers during wartime is a necessary evil, and thus permissible, whereas the deliberate targeting of civilians is absolutely forbidden.

These Conventions thus differentiate between soldiers who attack a military adversary, and war criminals who deliberatelyattack civilians.”

As of this month, over 5,700 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. That count does not include those veterans who commit suicide or die from war-related issues after returning home from military service. Well, a new investigation into California veterans and active service members reveals that three times as many veterans are dying soon after returning home than those being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. According to the report published in the Bay Citizen and the New York Times, more than 1,000 California veterans under 35 died between 2005 and 2008.

AMY GOODMAN: As of this month, over 5,700 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that number does not include those veterans who commit suicide soon after returning home from military service. Well, a new investigation into California veterans and active service members reveals three times as many veterans are dying soon after returning home than those being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. According to the report published in the Bay Citizen and the New York Times, more than a thousand California vets under thirty-five died between 2005 and 2008. That figure is three times higher than the number of California service members who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts over the same period. Continue reading →

At a rally Sunday, September 18, 2010, outside of the gates of Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, Iraq veterans spoke on behalf of a soldier imprisoned inside, Pfc. Bradley Manning. Manning has been held in solitary confinement at Quantico for almost three months now, accused of being the source of the “Collateral Murder” video which was released in April by the online whistleblower web site WikiLeaks. The video shows US forces firing 30 mm cannons from helicopter gunships into a crowd in Baghdad, killing over a dozen Iraqis, including two Reuters journalists, and seriously wounding two children.

The government has intimated that Manning may also be considered the source of the “Afghan War Diaries,” a series of almost 100,000 documents pertaining to the Afghan war published in July by WikiLeaks, which all together constitute the largest leak in military history.

A former soldier from the ground unit that responded to the helicopter shooting seen in the now-infamous video described the incident as a typical moment in his 2007 deployment to Baghdad as part of the Surge. “It was by no means abnormal,” said the former soldier, Josh Stieber, who served 14 months in the New Baghdad neighborhood.

In a previous interview with me, Stieber and two other soldiers from his unit, Bravo Company 2-16, detailed the paradox of attempting to “win hearts and minds” while systematically abusing people. “I think it illustrates why we shouldn’t put soldiers in that situation” he said of the video.

“That’s what the war looks like,” he told the crowd Sunday, while explaining that those who leak such information to the public are doing a service to the country. “It’s important in order to even have a conversation on [these wars] where soldiers are supposedly fighting on behalf of the American public,” he added, “for the American public to realize what kinds of situations soldiers are being put into.” Continue reading →